Banefire
"Where did you ''find this??! I think I've seen this image before -- once. And I've still got the scars from my old mentor's "punishment" for opening that book. . . . . No! I'm not going to offer you anything for it! That's not a 'collector's item', that's the most ill-fated piece of metal I've seen in the past 400 years! Get it out of here, and take yourselves with it!!"'' -- Maegrinal Silsteri, Counsel to the Elven Ambassador, Greenstone Enclave, Greenstone, Barony of the Eastern Reaches Just over 500 years ago, the Meadowwend River Valley in the southeastern part of what is now the Barony of the Eastern Reaches in the Kingdom of Tyredor was beset by unspeakable evil. So great was the abomination that dwarves, elves, humans, orcs, goblins, and gnolls united to stamp it out. So thorough were the efforts of the leaders of this improbable alliance that, all too quickly after their victory, the typical racial tensions once again re-emerged, and past cooperation was not just forgotten, it was as though it never happened. This is just a little of what is still known or recorded, as most of the direct participants are dead, or in the case of the longer-lived races, are now possessed of shattered minds -- likely the result of what they saw during the "Wicker Fires War". When the followers of ___________ swept out of the caverns beneath _________ (Darkmaw), villages and even cities were put to the torch. Most of the survivors were enslaved, or worse yet, burned on wicker pyres in offering and then devoured. The "Burned Host" reveled in destruction and self-mutilation, and inflicted their joys upon most in their path. Their early victories yielded a plentiful workforce, well-stocked larders, and little word of their emergence into the wider world. The high priests of __________ ordered the construction of a chthonic temple worthy of their dread master, and thus the Shroudfire Temple was conceived, and dedicated in a few short years upon a foundation of blood and bone atop the bedrock of the Barrier Mountains. The hierarchy of __________'s cult consists of 7 high priests -- the Shroudfire Master, the Pyrelord, the Shadowmaster, the Emissary of Flame, the Emissary of the Deep, the Hand of Stone, and the Hand of Pain. Below these 7 are the two orders that comprise the majority of the ranks of the faithful -- the Order of the Darkling Flame, and the Order of the Burning Dark. Close examination of these two orders indicates little actual distinction between the two; it appears that those who advance from the ranks of the Burned Host join one order or the other based upon personal preference. The Burned Host is made up of survivors who come to accept the doctrines of _________, and pass through the flames as a testimony of their newfound devotion (Few of even the vilest hearts have ever found this devotion willingly.). Below the Burned Host are . . . all the people not adherents of the cult -- slaves, future victims, and future meals. The Banefire's power was broken in a battle that raged in the Meadowwend Valley at the base of _________ (Darkmaw) and in the ethereal realms beyond the physical world -- just as the various races united to oppose this scourge, so, too, did the mightiest heralds of the many faiths represented among those peoples. Locked away in the outermost darkness of reality, his name excised from every inscription and book (the title "Banefire" is only contained in three texts to date, and those records are to be destroyed when their owners die), and every follower purged from the earth without leniency or remorse, ________ still waits for his name to be uttered, that he may gain the power to retake his place. The wicker thickets that surround ________ (Darkmaw) are nearly devoid of life; while the peoples that now occupy the valley are blessedly ignorant, the land remembers. Even the orc tribe given the hereditary duty to guard the path to the mountain knows few, if any, details of what they keep. But. Just weeks ago, someone infiltrated the wicker thickets and entered the mountain, and reemerged . . . . with something in his keeping. Category:Deity Category:Chaos Category:Evil Category:Made by Syrus Terrigan